Jaipur Literature Festival at The British Library

In case you missed it, The Jaipur Literature Festival, one of the biggest in the world, came to The British Library this past weekend. Although it typically takes place in the pink city of Jaipur in Rajestan every January, its popularity has meant that it has short versions in major cities around the world, like New York, Toronto and London.

This year, there was a formidable package of speakers, including but not limited to, Shashi Tharoor, Anita Rani, Nikita Gill, William Dalrymple and Nikesh Shukla. Stand-out talks include one with Shashi Tharoor, a former Indian international diplomat, politician, writer, public speaker, member of parliament in India, and former Under-Secretary General of the United Nations, who spoke about his 22 books, ideas, insights, his powerful indictment of colonialism and his latest collection of essays titled Pride, Prejudice and Punditry.

Shashi Tharoor from jlflitfest Instagram

Presenter and broadcaster Anita Rani conversation with poet Nikita Gill about her latest book, The Right Sort of Girl, shone a lit on the coming-of-age story of a woman “trying to navigate her Indian world at home and the British world outside her front door”. Writer William Dalrymple, known for his many books on India and the Raj, spoke with Shashi Tharoor about his latest, a culmination of two decades of historical research and story-telling, called The Company Quartet.

It tells the story of British Imperialism and the conquest of India, of how an unregulated private company let to global power, the political machinations that helped and the blood-soaked resistance. It tells the story of the East india Company. The final stand out talk was with well-known British Indian author Nikesh Shukla and Instagram famous poet Nikita Gill on race, racism, identity, immigration and how to tell your story. Some talks are still available to watch on The British Library website.

Nikita Gill and Nikesh Shukla from jlflitfest Instagram